


The Universe Trembles Beneath

by crocodilepatronus



Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 00:45:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17070293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: fix it / alternate ending of Justice League (2018) #5 / The Totality arc. Lex goes to the future and everything changes, but not the way he thought. (Brief Kon cameo).





	The Universe Trembles Beneath

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sort of fix-it of Justice League (2018) #5 by James Tynion IV and borrows a few of his words from the issue.

There is no warning. Tears well up in scarecrow’s eyes… he knows the world has changed, but he doesn’t understand how.

He is not alone. The echoes can be felt from Arkham Asylum to the desert sky high above Kahndaq. An unmistakable electricity in the air.

In hell, they feel it, too. Neron nearly drops a finely aged cask of human souls as a shiver runs up his spine. A sensation he has never experienced before.

At the far reaches of the universe, the fire pits of Apokolips spring to new heights.

Because right now, Lex Luthor is about to achieve something he has only ever dreamed of. He feels the universe tremble beneath him, and he smiles. All is as it should be. . . . . . .

 

Luthor’s story was full of broken lines, divergences and reconnections. Where it really started may have been a small town in Kansas, or maybe in the top floor office of the Lexcorp office, or maybe even the planet Krypton. But where things began to change was in Metropolis, with the world’s smartest man forced to admit what he had never admitted before. That he had been wrong.

 

Days prior he had had a crisis of faith. Had torn the S from his battle suit. Had saved the world only to learn how futile it was. He sat in the bowels of a secret Lexcorp lab and picked apart a mother box to steal its fuel, needing to know for certain. Needing to break every law of space and time if it meant achieving certainty.

 

Lexcorp had studied time-travel for years via shell companies in central city. He had a rough map that went forward millenia, but that wasn’t enough for him. In this machine he was adrift in hypertime, jumping timeline to timeline…

He was looking for proof. He was looking for direction. For a sign. That it was all worthless…. Or that maybe it wasn’t.

 

Time flew by him in many colors and sensations around the glass orb travel device, he could see cities crumbling, the future emerging as if from a chrysalis and blooming then decaying all within the blink of an eye, and it was overwhelming. But to the closest alternate timeline he reached out, setting the device and all at once everything stopped and he was still in time, in a horizontal timeline, watching from his seat as a pure spectator like the events were unfolding in a three dimensional theater around him.

 

It was the future but it was a near future- a mere few years. On Christmas eve.

The room was in an apartment he’d never been in, softly lit by white string lights that reflected off the hanging gold balls on the evergreen tree standing in the center. He saw himself- like an out of body experience- standing by the window, watching the snow fall. The line of his shoulders was relaxed in a dark red cashmere sweater and he was cradling a mug of something steaming in between his hands.

 

“They’re a little burnt at the edges.”

 

He saw himself blink out of his reveries and turn, smile calmly, at Clark Kent coming in from the kitchen holding a plate of gingerbread cookies, still wearing an apron that had a picture of a cartoon reindeer on the front of it.

 

Lex, the one still sitting in the time travel pod, couldn’t interact with this timeline’s future but he could practically feel it as he saw it play out before him- maybe because it was his own self that he was watching and that thread of identity still connected to them- he felt it like a near memory even though in his universe it had yet to ever occur. He could smell the cinnamon and pine needles, could feel the warmth of Clark’s palm when he rested it on the small of his back and they stood side by side looking out at the snow falling gently on the skyscrapers of Metropolis like a white blanket.

 

Lex averted his eyes to look back at the control panel, adjusting it and shifting the machine forward once more, flying colors, staying within the same timeline but farther ahead.

 

Metropolis again, this time on the streets. He was wearing a power suit- one very similar to the one he’d created when working under the Superman insignia, but this time it did not bear the S shield on it and he’d gone back to his former colors- the green and purple he’d worn during his stay with the Justice League.

 

Superman stood by his side as they had until recently. Photographers snapped their picture in front of a hospital. Lex (the Lex in this timeline) had his hand on Superman’s shoulder in comfortable affection.

 

a news anchor was speaking in front of the camera rig “This hospital was partially destroyed by the recent extraterrestrial terrorist attack but with the help of the Justice League, all the patients were safely evacuated and the building had been repaired with funds donated by Lex Luthor. Metropolis’s two heroes made an appearance today at the grand re-opening-“

 

Lex didn’t need to see any more of this. He hit another button the control panel, going further into the future, by several years this time.

 

A dark laboratory. Clark and Lex standing with their shoulders touching, in front of a huge glass tank filled with green water. And in the middle of the tank floated an infant, fitted with a plastic umbilical cord, and an oxygen mask to its mouth. Already a few tufts of dark hair swam around its sleeping face.

 

There were tears in Clark’s eyes but he was smiling. He put his hand up to the glass. “I just wish I could hold him…”

Lex put his hand on top of Clark’s, entwining their fingers together and squeezing.

“You will hold him. Soon.”

Clark’s smile spread further until his lips were trembling and a tear rolled down the side of his face. “Our son…. Kon….”

Lex brought Clark’s hands to his face and kissed his knuckles gently. Clark pulled him into his arms.

 

The Lex Luthor who still sat in the time travel device leaned back in his chair and passed his hand across his face and sighed. He felt tired, deep in his bones, a sort of exhaustion that had been building for a long while. It was time to go home, back to his own universe and leave the dream behind.

\- - - -

“Luthor.” Clark said with an appropriate amount of bitterness. It was interesting, Lex thought, seeing Clark of the present day in front of him in the flesh as opposed to the version of Clark that he’d witnessed through his machine. That Clark had seemed so soft, so available. This Clark had his guard up.

 

Lex had arranged their meeting on the roof of the Daily Planet and had said nothing about what it was to address but that Clark needed to meet him IMMEDIATELY and he’d had his helicopter drop him off. He was wearing a black suit with a purple dress shirt and he’d fussed with the notion of a tie for several minutes before deciding to leave without it.

 

“Superman.” Lex replied easily. And watched the way it made Clark’s face go through several emotions when it sunk in what Lex had said- surprise, then anxiety, then annoyance.

 

“What? You didn’t really think I hadn’t known this whole time, did you?” Lex drawled, putting his hands in his pockets and pretending to admire the giant golden globe that was reflecting the meager light of the gray day on both of their faces. “We were childhood friends after all.”

 

Clark took a step forward, jaw set and fist clenching at his side. “Whatever kind of blackmail you’re planning-”

 

But Lex put his hand up in surrender.

 

“No need to be angry. I’m not here to cause any trouble.” Lex drawled.

 

“That would be a first.” Clark was testy, hands still twitching nervously at his sides. Ready for a fight.

 

“I’m here to admit I was wrong.”

 

The anger drained from Clark’s face, replaced with surprise. “That would… REALLY be a first…”

 

Lex smiled wryly. “Hopefully it will be the last.”

 

“Well you'll have to be more specific.” Clark crossed his arms over his chest defensively but Lex could see in his expression that his guard wasn’t up the way it had been. He’d disarmed him.

 

“About us.” Lex said simply. “When I told you that you changed my mind- made me believe in things I’d stopped believing in a long time ago… I meant that. And then I almost gave all that up. But now I realize I was just wallowing in self pity, and letting my injured pride dictate my actions… If you’ll accept my apology, I…” Lex wasn’t sure he’d ever apologized in his life and the words didn’t come easily, he stumbled through them as if he was new to the language.

 

“It’s accepted.”

 

Clark’s smile was warm. It reached his eyes, blue and sparkling the endless pool of acceptance, of second chances, third chances, fourth- as many as Lex would ever need.

 

It was beginning to snow. Thick, white, flakes floating lazily in the air from the slate grey sky. The city stretched out before them in neutral tones like it had been painted by someone with limited access to colors.

 

‘This as weak as I’ve ever been’ Lex thought to himself ruefully. But it was a new feeling- that sometimes even defeat had its sweetness. If it led to later victory.

 

Clark held out his hand. Lex took it, noticing the heat radiating from his palm, the lack of callouses on his fingers, and gripped it briefly before letting his arm drop back to his side, turning to leave. The wind was already biting at his neck, his ears and he pulled his collar up to brace against it.

 

“Hey-“

 

Lex looked back over his shoulder.

 

“Lex, it’s the holidays. I… If we’re friends again… Do you have plans, is what I mean-“ Clark laughed self consciously, almost comically embarrassed, adjusting his glasses out of habit.

 

The memory that didn’t belong to him yet, of a warmly lit apartment, the smell of fresh baked ginger bread, felt like it glanced across his skin and brought warmth to his face even in the brisk wind on top of the building. He smiled.

 

“Not this year, Clark… Try again next year.”

 

Clark looked confused by the answer but when Lex’s smile widened and he glanced self consciously down at the ground, Clark seemed to decide to give up on trying to understand and just smiled back.

 

“Okay.” he said. “Next year.”

 

The world has changed. But he doesn’t understand how. Lex feels the universe shift beneath him, and he smiles even as he walks away.

 


End file.
